The Grinch (2000)
The Grinch is the titular main protagonist of The Grinch the 2000 live-action film adaptation of How The Grinch Stole Christmas! He was portrayed by Jim Carrey as an adult while the late Josh Ryan Evans (in his final theatrical role) play as an 8-year-old Grinch when he was a child. In 2018, The Grinch will be appearing in the movie remake (18 years since the Jim Carrey film), however it is computer animated rather than live action and he is voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch who plays the superhero Doctor Strange. Personality Similar to his original counterpart, the Grinch is shown to be very grouchy, selfish, and wrathful in nature. To that end, he would play harmful pranks on the citizens of Whoville, such as tampering with their mail, making crank calls, and scaring intruders from entering into his lair. However, the true reason behind his wrathful nature was due to being bullied by other kids for his appearance. As a child, he was an outcast at school and was bullied by his classmates, especially by Augustus Maywho and that the horrible treatment is what drove him off the edge to become the Christmas-hating person he was known. Despite his flaws, the Grinch is somewhat insecure as he thinks of himself nothing but a monster to be hated because of his appearance and nature. However, it wasn't until the intervention of Cindy Lou Who and the epiphany of the true meaning of Christmas is what made him learn the error of his ways, even willing to return the gifts and decorations that he stole from the Whos. Biography His past The Grinch arrived in Whoville by mistake when he was a baby and was adopted by two elderly sisters. Although he showed some sadistic tendencies as a child, the Grinch was raised in a nice childhood by the sisters. Despite having a good childhood, the Grinch was an outcast at school and was bullied by classmates (mainly by Augustus May Who) because of his green and hairy appearance. The only classmate to show him any compassion was Martha May Whovier, whom he had a crush on. One Christmas season when he was eight, the Grinch made a gift for Martha, but he attempted to shave his face after remembering what all the kids said, cutting himself in the process. When everyone saw the Grinch's face covered with shaving tape the next morning, they laughed at him for this. Fed up with mockery, the Grinch went on a rampage, scaring everyone out of his way as he ran off to live on Mt. Crumpit. Over the years, the Grinch remained in hiding in a huge cave and became an urban legend due to brief sightings, developing a hatred for Christmas and the Whos for their mockery against him, even pulling dangerous and harmful practical jokes on them. The Present It wasn't until a 6-year-old girl named Cindy Lou Who believes that everyone is missing the point about Christmas by being more concerned about the gifts and festivities. After having a face-to-face encounter with the Grinch at the post office which he saves her being crushed by a machine, Cindy Lou becomes interested in his history. The next day, she asks everyone what they know about him and learns about his tragic past. Touched by this story, Cindy decides to make the Grinch the main participant of the Whobilation, to the great displeasure of Augustus (who is currently the Mayor of Whoville), who reluctantly agrees after pressure from the townspeople who have been warmed by Cindy Lou's generous spirit. When Cindy Lou goes to Mount Crumpit and offers an invitation to the Grinch, he turns her down. He gradually changes his mind, however, due to the promise of an award, the presence of Martha at the celebration and the chance to upset the Mayor. Just as the Grinch is enjoying himself and almost won over by attending all of the Whobilation's contests and games, the Mayor gives him an electric shaver as a present, reminding him of his awful humiliation at school. The Mayor even tops it off by asking Martha to marry him, promising her a new car in return. This causes the Grinch to berate the Whos for thinking that Christmas is about gifts that they'll just dispose of later in the hopes of making them too ashamed to celebrate the holiday. The Grinch then goes on to ruin the party by burning the Christmas tree with a makeshift flamethrower (although his actions prove fruitless as the Whos have a spare tree, which the Grinch sees them erect before he leaves). Returning back to Mt. Crumpit, the Grinch instead concocts a plan to steal all of their presents while they are sleeping. Creating a Santa suit and sleigh with his own dog, Max as a "deer", the Grinch flies around Whoville, stealing all of the Whos' Christmas gifts. He is almost discovered by Cindy Lou, but lies to her in order to get away. The next day, the Grinch manages to get Max ride the sleigh up into the top of Mt. Crumpit, happily declaring the success of his plan. At that time, the Whos discover the Grinch's scheme and Augustus denounces Cindy Lou as the root of this catastrophic disaster. However, Lou Lou Who (the Whoville postmaster) finally stands up to him by saying that he doesn't care if the Grinch stole away all their presents. Lou then reminds everyone that they still have Christmas spirit and that the true meaning of Christmas is to spend time with your family and friends, and that the Grinch wouldn't have hated Christmas if the Mayor hadn't mocked him in the first place. With this revelation, all the Whos agreed with Lou and decided to enjoy the holiday without their gifts by singing together. Hoping that the change of mood would inspire the Grinch, Cindy Lou goes to Mt. Crumpit to find him. Upon hearing the Whos joyfully singing, the Grinch became furious over the failure of his plan, but has an epiphany about what Christmas is really about: not material gifts, but spending time with your loved ones, an insight that profoundly touches him and causes his heart to grow to three times its original size. When the sleigh full of stolen gifts begins to go over the edge of the cliff, the Grinch desperately tries to save them to no avail. However, he spots Cindy Lou wanting to wish him a merry Christmas and is in danger of falling off the cliff with the sleigh, the Grinch finds enough strength to lift the sleigh, the gifts and Cindy Lou to safety. After a long descent down Mount Crumpit, the Grinch returns to Whoville with Cindy, Max and the gifts. He confesses to the burglary and apologizes for his actions before surrendering to the police, willing to accept his punishment for his crimes. However, the police and the Whos agreed to forgive the Grinch as he learned his lesson, even Martha turns down Augustus' proposal and decides that she would rather stay with the Grinch instead which it make the Grinch very happy. The redeemed Grinch (along with Max) starts a new life with the Whos, commemorating the Christmas feast with them in his cave. Also, he and Martha starts a romance relationship after they both smiled at the end include becoming Cindy's best friend. Videogame appearance The Grinch appears as the playable character in the 2000 video game tie-in of the movie (which is very loosely based off the film as well as the book). The Grinch decides to destroy the Whos Christmas, however when he loses his blue prints to his gadgets which end up scattering around the place he is forced to go on a journey to collect them. The player is given tasks to do, such as smashing presents and other mischievous things to torment the Whos. Max the Dog is also a playable character which the Grinch can use to gain access to areas to help him progress further. Along the way the player collects parts for the Grinch's sleigh, and once completed they are involved in a boss mission which they chase down Santa Claus in his sleigh and shoot him down. But like the film and book, the Grinch realizes the Whos are still happy. Once his heart grows, he returns to Whoville and apologies for his actions. Relationship Cindy Lou Who When he first met Cindy Lou Whi at the post office, they didn't get along since The Grinch was bad and think that Cindy is just like the other Whos who only care about presents. Even though he did save her from the stamping machine, he just don't want to admit that he only did that because he care. Later, he met Cindy again after she found that the only reason he hate Christmas is because he had a tragic past and Cindy think that he's funny and not afraid of him which it upset him, but decide to go to the celebration after failing to make her leave or shutting her up (including the promise of an award, the presence of Martha at the celebration and the chance to upset the Mayor). As the movie continue, The Grinch went bad again after the mayor gives him an electric shaver as a present, reminding him of his humiliation at school and asks Martha to marry him, promising her a new car in return. In response, the Grinch berates The Whos and criticizes Christmas, claiming that the holiday is only about gifts that they will just dispose of later, in the hopes of making them too ashamed to celebrate the holiday. Then, he goes on to ruin the party by burning the Christmas tree and causing chaos throughout Whoville, but his actions prove to be fruitless as the Whos have a spare tree which the Grinch sees them erect before he leaves. The Grinch, knowing that his attack has failed to remove the Whos' Christmas spirit, decide to steal Christmas and The Grinch, knowing that his attack has failed to remove the Whos' Christmas spirit, instead concocts a plan to steal all of their presents while they are sleeping. Creating a Santa suit and sleigh with his own dog Max as a "reindeer", the Grinch travels to Whoville and steals all of the Whos' Christmas gifts. He is almost discovered by Cindy Lou, but lies to her in order to escape. On Christmas morning, the Whos discover the Grinch's scheme and May Who blames the whole disaster on Cindy Lou. However, her father, Lou Lou Who, the Whoville postmaster, finally stands up to him and reminds everyone that they still have Christmas spirit and that the true meaning of Christmas is to spend time with your family and friends. The people agree and begin to sing. Hoping that the change of mood would inspire the Grinch, Cindy Lou goes to Mount Crumpit to find him. The Grinch intends to push the stolen gifts off the top of the mountain. However, he hears the joyful singing of the Whos and knows he has failed again. Infuriated, the Grinch finally realize what he have done after realize that Christmas isn't about presents, but spending time with your love ones which it make his heart grew 3 size. When the sleigh full of stolen gifts begins to go over the edge of the cliff, the Grinch desperately tries to save them to no avail. However, when he realizes that Cindy Lou has come to wish him a merry Christmas and is in danger of falling off the cliff with the sleigh, the Grinch finds enough strength to lift the sleigh, the gifts and Cindy Lou to safety. The Grinch returns to Whoville with Max, Cindy and the gifts. He confesses to the burglary, tearfully apologizes for his actions towards the Whos, and surrenders himself to the police as they arrive, but the Whos reconcile with him, much to May Who's dismay. Martha turns down May Who's proposal and decides that she would rather stay with the Grinch instead. Then, he later got a friendly and thank you kiss from Cindy who care about him (include saving her from the sleigh). Then, they becomes best friends as the movie ends. Martha May Whovier When he was 8 years old, he was in love with Martha when she look at him while licking her lollipop at school. He always have a crush on Martha ever since childhood and do anything to win her heart until he made a gift for Martha, but attempted to shave his face after being made fun of for having a "beard", cutting himself by accident. When his classmates and teacher saw his face covered with shaving tape the next morning, they laughed at him except Martha which he lost his temper, went on a rampage and ran away to live on a mountain to the north of Whoville, Mount Crumpit. As years has passed, he later met her again when they're both adults now and he was flirting with her during the competition until his rival Augustus propose to her by making him jealous and anger too. At the end, after the Grinch reformed, Martha call off the engagement and decide to be with him since Martha always love The Grinch which that make The Grinch really happy. Later, they started to have a relationship after they sing and celebrate Christmas at the Grinch's home. Max the Dog Max is the dog and companion of The Grinch. We don't know how or when The Grinch got him, but we think that The Grinch found him during his childhood. Max was first seen when he scare the Whos with the huge monster with a growl. His master, The Grinch was proud of him for scaring them, but upset that those Whos won't leave him alone. So, he got a plan to prank those Whos at Whoville. Their plan works until they met Cindy Lou Who at the post office and when Cindy's in trouble, Max order his master to save her which the grinch did. After saving Cindy, they left and make crank calls until they decide to go home where they live at Mt. Crumpit. He wasn't seen again until Cindy came to Mt. Crumpit to invite his master to join the party and later on, The Grinch decide to go. After The Grinch was having a bad time (thank to the mayor), the grinch came home and realize that Max was having a party by himself include having a great time. Then, his master threw him out and told Max that if he's not gonna help, he'll do something bad to him until somehow Max give him a idea: to dress as Santa Claus, so he can steal Christmas. Before they head to Whoville, The Grinch realize that he forget the reindeer and notice that if he can't find one, he'll use Max instead. His master make Max as a reindeer and they heard Whoville to steal presents every single house. After got every single presents, they were heading home until the sled was out of gas. So, The Grinch make Max to pull the sled all the way home and Max was tired after they both got home. While his master was about to push the sled, he and Max realize that the Whos are singing without any presents. At first, The Grinch was mad about it, then confuse and suddenly realize that Christmas isn't about presents, it's about spending time with the people you love. After The Grinch realize what he had done, he told Max that he love him and Max give him a happy lick until his master told him to give him some space. Then, Max realize that the sled is about to fall and warn his master. After his master saving the sled include Cindy Lou Who, they head back to Whoville to bring the presents back. At the end, we see Max was sitting next to Cindy when she serve him a feast and started to eat Augustus May Who He and Augustus know each other since childhood, but he always hate Augustus after he and the classmate laugh at him for being a freak which it upset him and hate Christmas ever since. As years has passed, they both had a crush on Martha too and they do anything to win Martha's heart. At the celebration, Augustus decide to make The Grinch remember his past by giving him an electric shaver and propose to Martha right in front of him which it make The Grinch hurt, jealous and anger by destroying the celebration. At the end, Augustus still upset that The Grinch ruin Christmas and want him arrest until The Grinch reformed and return the gift by saying that he was sorry which it upset him more and Martha call off the engagement by being with The Grinch. The Whos Back then, he was being bullied by Augustus and the classmate by calling him a freak. Ever since, he hate the Whos and Christmas. That's all change until he met Cindy Lou and save her from the stamping machine at the post office. At the celebration, he was enjoying himself and almost won over, but Augustus gives him an electric shaver as a present, reminding him of his awful humiliation at school and asks Martha to marry him, promising her a new car in return. This causes the Grinch to openly berate the Whos for thinking that Christmas is about gifts that they will just dispose of later, in the hopes of making them too ashamed to celebrate the holiday. He then goes on to ruin the party by burning the Christmas tree with a makeshift flamethrower. At the end, he reformed after realize that he was wrong about Christmas and return the gifts by telling the Whos that he was sorry for being cruel in the past which the Whos forgave him and let him commemorating the Christmas feast with them in his cave. Trivia *In the film, the Grinch's younger self was portrayed by the late Josh Ryan Evans in his final film role. *Unlike the book or 1966 and 2018 version, where the Grinch is a smart, scheming and manipulative individual, the film shows him to be an entertaining, whimsical, comical and insane person with the scheming qualities. **Also, he never mentions 53 years and instead, he mentions year after year, making the number of years he put up with Christmas ambiguous. *The original Grinch was not green. Like everything else in the book, he was black and white with some red and pink splotches. Jim Carrey's Grinch was originally meant to look like this but Ron Howard wanted the film to also be an adaptation of the Chuck Jones cartoon. *The film shows that the mayor is the real villain and the Grinch is the real good guy. It's because of the Mayor's bullying, that caused the Grinch to become cold, a little scorbutic and anti-social. *The Grinch is very similar to Davey Stone from Eight Crazy Night, The Beast from Beauty and The Beast and Ebenezer Scrooge: all hate Christmas at the beginning because of the past, both are in love with their love interest, both are even adult and both redeemed after knowing the true meaning of Christmas. *Before Jim Carrey was cast to play the Grinch, Jack Nicholson, Eddie Murphy, Dustin Hoffman and the late Robin Williams were briefly considered. *Jim Carrey's Grinch suit was covered in yak hair, which was dyed green, and sewed onto a spandex suit. *He is similar to his 2018 animated counterpart, because they both have a tragic past when they were young, both have a dog named Max and both hate Christmas at first until redeemed at the end. The only difference is this grinch is more like a real live creature while the other grinch is an animated version. *Jim Carrey accepted the role of The Grinch when he heard a tape of a kid's choir singing the song "You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch". *Jim Carrey's yellow contact lenses were so uncomfortable that he wasn't able to wear them at times during filming. Some shots of his eyes be colored in post-production. *The Grinch is the only character who breaks the fourth wall in the film. He actively tries to avoid speaking in rhyme and even interacts with the narrator. *After The Grinch leaves Whoville for the second time, the camera pans up and a statue of an Elephant can be seen, in reference to "Horton Hears a Who." Jim Carrey would later go on to voice Horton in the animated film of the same name. *When the Grinch drove the little car, when he was destroying Christmas, Jim Carrey said that it was really hard to drive and it took him forever to get the feel of the car. *Jim Carrey admitted to feeling ashamed for not trying to prevent some of the adult humor in this film, and has repeatedly stated that all of the jokes he ad-libbed were age appropriate. He then found out that Ron Howard had removed many other jokes that were even raunchier, but had to keep some of it, due to what they both claim as "studio interference". *The Grinch's only real victim while he is stealing Christmas, is a fluffy white cat that he accidentally sucked up with a vacuum, while stealing presents from a house. *By virtue of a sad backstory, the movie makes the Grinch a more sympathetic character than he was in the book, or the Chuck Jones special. *The Grinch has sharp fingernails that can dent cars, and cut through thick glass. *When the grinch pulls the sheet off the table all the silverware was scripted to fall off with the sheet. Jim pulled the sheet off so well that when nothing came off he went back ruined the table himself. *The Grinch has two similarities to Jim Carrey's character Stanley Ipkiss (the Mask) in The Mask (1994). The Grinch and the Mask are green in appearance (although the Mask is only green in the face), and the Grinch and Stanley have dogs, named Max and Milo, respectively. *Jim Carrey and Sir Anthony Hopkins were both involved in comic books. Carrey played the Riddler in Batman Forever (1995) while narrator Anthony Hopkins went on a few years later to play Odin, Thor's father in Thor (2011), Thor: The Dark World (2013), and Thor: Ragnarok (2017) and Dr. Edward Bailey in RED 2 (2013). *This is the most successful movie of Jim Carrey's career. *Jim Carrey (The Grinch) played another Christmas-hating character, Ebenezer Scrooge, in Disney's A Christmas Carol (2009). Happily, both characters become kind and generous at the end of their respective films. *When the Grinch's heart begins to grow, it hurts his chest and he falls to the ground and wounds his hand. He turns back and forth between his two injuries, mimicking a similar gag from Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (1995) in which Ace takes a spear to each leg. *The Grinch doesn't conjure up the idea to steal Christmas until an hour into the film. *The scene where The Grinch is directing his dog, Max, before stealing Christmas, is Jim Carrey making fun of Director Ron Howard, imitating his style of directing. Howard found the scene hilarious, and decided to include it in the film. External links * . 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